This article is meant to serve as a brief introduction to TrapWire (parent company is Abraxas) and their involvement with STRATFOR. The information below is gathered directly from the STRATFOR (Global Intelligence) emails that were released by Wikileaks.
The emails were given to Wikileaks after the hack on STRATFOR that took place on December 24th 2011. The hack on STRATFOR was done by members of LulzSec, an offshoot of Anonymous and led by Sabu. As it turned out though, Sabu had already been turned by the FBI back in June 2011 after his arrest and was actively working for them against his fellow hackers. The FBI were fully aware of Sabu ‘s attack on STRATFOR, although they were never held accountable for it. This isn’t the first time that the FBI have created a situation in order to get an arrest, nor will it be the last. In fact they have a bit of a track record for creating incidents.
Note: Wikileaks is currently under a massive DDoS attack by an unknown entity, although a group called Anti Leaks is stating that they are behind the attacks, but most suspect that given the timing of the TrapWire leaks that the US gov is more likely to be involved. The DDoS attack has been on-going since August 4th at a rate of 10GB per sec on average. The Anti Leak group is headed by DietPepsi:
You can call me DietPepsi. I am the leader of AntiLeaks. We are not doing this to call attention to ourselves. We are young adults, citizens of the United States of America and are deeply concerned about the recent developments with Julian Assange and his attempt at asylum in Ecuador.
Assange is the head of a new breed of terrorist. We are doing this as a protest against his attempt to escape justice into Ecuador. This would be a catalyst for many more like him to rise up in his place. We will not stop and they will not stop us.
What is TrapWire?
TrapWire, owned by Abraxas, is predictive software that integrates directly with a clients surveillance hardware (security cameras) enabling real-time facial-recognition. It is primarily designed to monitor and determine threat levels based on possible terrorist or other criminal activity. There are three different systems that TrapWire offer. These are:
- TW-CI (TrapWire Critical Infrastructure) focuses on the identification of pre-operational surveillance activities occurring around specific sites within the TrapWire Network
- TW-CM (TrapWire Community Member) supports the online reporting of suspicious behavior by community members, such as the iWatch programs in Los Angeles and Washington DC, and See Something Say Something in Las Vegas and New York
- TW-LE (TrapWire Law Enforcement) provides the ability to gather, analyze and disseminate information about surveillance and logistical activities occurring across an entire geographic region, including information gathered via TW CI and TW CM deployments
TrapWire is a unique, predictive software system designed to detect patterns indicative of terrorist attacks or criminal operations. Utilizing a proprietary, rules-based engine, TrapWire detects, analyzes and alerts on suspicious events as they are collected over periods of time and across multiple locations. Through the systematic capture of these pre-attack indicators, terrorist or criminal surveillance and pre-attack planning operations can be identified — and appropriate law enforcement counter measures employed ahead of the attack. As such, our clients are provided with the ability to prevent the terrorist or criminal event, rather than simply mitigate damage or loss of life.
Original agreement (added here as well due to ongoing DDoS attacks on Wikileaks)
The use of TrapWire by companies and countries is staggering and frankly pretty scary. Here are a fraction of the TrapWire clients from around the globe:
- Washington DC
- Las Vegas Sands Corporation
- Los Angeles
- LAPD
- London Stock Exchange
- No. 10 Downing Street
- NYC Subway (500 cameras were activated in September 2010)
- Texas
- Pentagon
- Hunt Oil
- US Military (All)
- NASA
- Canada
The focus to get TrapWire installed in more locations in Houston TX began just a couple of months after the initial agreement was signed between STRATFOR and Abraxas, and was heavily pushed by Fred Burton (VP of STRATFOR) See 3466948 on Wikileaks
Looks like we signed a deal with Abraxas (TrapWire) just in time. Involved contract but the bottom line is that we are marketing our IS through providing their customers via sit reps and if we land anything we give them a 8% finders fee. In return we introduce them to companies, we get an 8% finders fee. Well, guess what, this is one of Fred’s “pet” companies and Fred has said that, once he is #2 dude in the Texas DPS (Department of Public Safety) (September oneth) that he is going use the appropriated $1,500,000 to install TrapWire’s product on the Texas border. George, 8% X $1,500,000 = $120,000 for the good guys. Now, this all could be a wet dream, but stranger things have happened. Also, Fred has said that the second area he wants to use TrapWire is on the Houston Channel, which would be much larger. Maybe we can get some of the payback from Fred as insurance from lawsuits that have got to hit us from his social list comments!
Using inside contacts like Senator John Carona, STRATFOR were able to secure the use of TrapWire on a larger scale. See 3474981 on Wikileaks
We need to light a fire under Abraxas/TrapWire. I do think the Great State of Texas would buy more TrapWire systems if someone kissed a few very fat arses inside the State Capital Bldg. Key Senators like Corona are Fred Burton fans and control the purse strings on gobs of Homeland Security monies. Thank God for Rick Perry. If the dumb ass Longhorns and Hutchinson fans vote him out of office we are FUBR (Don, pls take note.) The Aggies love guns and lawmen. The Horns love daisies and demos.
Another one of the earlier contracts that STRATFOR has on its client list is Hunt Oil who control the electrical transmission lines between Mexico and Texas, although according to one of the emails, getting Hunt Oil to re-sign on-going contracts isn’t easy. See 3488256 on Wikileaks
I’m not sure the arsehole can write ~ Fred Burton
Unfortunately, the pages on TrapWire that had more detail on the companies top people was taken down, due to overexposure after the recent leaks. However, there are screenshots available that were taken prior to their removal:
Here is a great Q and A from November 7th 2005 between Richard Helms (Founder of Abraxas) and NTVC
So what does Abraxas do exactly?
We have the largest aggregate of analytical counter-terrorism capabilities, outside of the U.S. Government, and are foremost among competitors in intelligence experience. We offer data collection and analytical skills, fraud investigation and containment, domestic and international due diligence, competitive market intelligence, new market entry, with an emphasis on China, political, economic and security assessment, behavioral analysis and deception detection services. We give clients a competitive advantage by providing them with better information, enabling them to make stronger and more informed decisions. With offices in both the U.S. and China, we can serve clients effectively and efficiently across the globe.
The next time you look up at a CCTV camera, take 5 seconds to think about what is looking back.
One of the concerning things though that I have found looking through the emails (published and un-published) is the vast amount of attachments, all of which are unencrypted. These include, PDF’s, Excel files, old WinMail.dat files etc. There is a lot of corporate information that could be exposed including client credit card information as well as other details. The reason I find that concerning is mainly due to the fact that a company who is meant to gather this much information on people don’t even encrypt their emails, nor the attachments which is a huge no-no for a company with that much intel on multiple countries. The question is, will STRATFOR be subject to any form of fine to due improper data protection.
This happened in September 2010 to the UK based law company ACS:Law, whereby after a prolonged DDoS by 4Chan on their systems also had their emails released after ACS:Law accidentally exposed them whilst trying to get the site back up. Again, that company made no effort in encrypting their data and other companies, mainly big name ISP’s like BT, BEBroadband, Tiscali etc were emailing large data-bases to them completely unencrypted in .xls format. That meant that thousands of user names along with their credit card info were easily available to the public to look at. There was also quite a few passport scans that people were supplying.
For those wishing to donate to Wikileaks, you are able to do so even though the site is under heavy attack. Simply download and use the Tor browser (it’s free and very secure) and then use this URL http://x4vy4j4riwzwp66p.onion/donate
